Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Militant fighters tightened their grip Sunday on western Iraq as security forces withdrew from a handful of towns in Anbar province, moving closer to Baghdad.

The news that Iraqi forces withdrew from at least three towns in the province raised questions about whether Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government is giving up on the region.

It also comes the same day that Iran's religious leader condemned any U.S. involvement in Iraq, saying al-Maliki's government can handle its own problems.

"The United States is trying to portray this as a sectarian war. But what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shiite and Sunnis," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

The Sunni fighters are battle hardened veterans. The Shi’ite hastily formed militias are mostly novices and are poorly led. The coming battle for Baghdad will resemble the fall of Saigon. Its time to have an orderly and complete evacuation of the Baghdad embassy and put this whole sorry affair behind us.

That’s what I’m thinking too. Wait until they get back into the trench warfare, like their recent war where both sides were massing and taking turns doing ‘human wave’ attacks like Bronze age savages.
When enough of them are lined up, call in Arc light and use up all of our old, dusty iron dumb-bomb stock.
Allahu fubar to the sunny sides up, the shiits, the needing a Baathites, and all the Muckdars, Imams, mullahs and ululating maniacs can yell, “Habba dabba dabba!” at each other as their body parts are sailing through the stratosphere towards Paradise.

At how much? a million and a half each? No, too much swag for these cave peoples.
Yes, tell the SPLC, Code Pink, etc.—of course we don’t see any of these goo goos now that their ‘Lord & $avior is pResidentin’—that volunteer human shields are being transported at govt. expense (like our uninvited minor foreign guests from central America being jetted all over the country) and once they’re on the transport plane, strap TNT to them and force as many ball bearings down them as they can hold.
Then it’s as simple as fusing them, dropping the tail over the battlefield and pushing them out the back.

From the Sunni areas around the airport on the West of Baghdad, the Sunnis could pop artillery into heavily Shia Sadr City, just we used to.

Only instead of laser-guided precision munitions, they are more likely to lay down a wide spread of mustard gas and nerve agent, which they recently liberated from al Muthanna.

There is no way the Shia (including Iran) could sit back and leave the holy sites of Karbala (60 miles South of town) to Sunni fundamentalists - it is where the Imam Mahdi, the Shia messiah, is supposed to be. They would have to take at least a few hundred thousand casualties first.

Get your popcorn stockages levelled up now - once the main battle is engaged, you won’t want to have to be making grocery runs.

I have a special brand of contempt for this horrendous lying sack of sh*t, so I agree with your prescription for him and his cronies. Doesn't even look human. Total pod-person. Makes millions sliming and destroying anyone who doesn't agree with the DemoSCUM agenda. I HATE THESE PEOPLE!

"The United States is trying to portray this as a sectarian war. But what is happening in Iraq is not a war between Shiite and Sunnis," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency.

Why did CNN even include this brainless quote? How stupid is he??

The terrorists have said they are not after Christians and they have in fact bypassed Christian towns without killing or fighting them at all.

Iranian troops know how to fight, they will be leading the Shiite defense. ISIS may be battle hardened but they are not elite special forces, basically a band of desert cutthroats, even if experienced ones. Shiite will fight like Stalingrad, and will overwhelm with numbers of green recruits WWII Stalingrad style.

I agree. The Shia may not be as battle hardened, but they can be as fanatical and no doubt wiil fight hard if properly lead, or even if not. Major use of gas could have interesting international consequences.

"If the jihadists are to be believed, he has nothing to fear. Through its social media accounts, the alliance of Isis and former Baathists from the Saddam Hussein regime that now runs Mosul has assured the wider world that they have no quarrel with the Christian minority. So long as they observe the new rules - Sharia, implemented strictly - their places of worship will be protected".

Aside from the thousands still at the embassy, I have not heard of more contractors being evacuated since the exxon employees left three or four days ago. It baffles me that folks are not being evacuated. Iraq is no place to be in the best of times.

WEll in a week or two we will get to watch our Embassy in flames and God knows how many US citizens killed and captured because we have a clueless moron in the Whitehouse. He should have evacuated already except for a few key personnel.

32
posted on 06/23/2014 8:22:00 AM PDT
by Georgia Girl 2
(The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)

“Its time to have an orderly and complete evacuation of the Baghdad embassy and put this whole sorry affair behind us.”

Makes one wonder if Obozo, our Sunni potus, is planning to sacrifice all of the democrats in our Baghdad Embassy to justify some radical action on his behalf.

Left wing radicals, with degrees from the Ivy League, George Washington University and George Town, UC Berkley and liberals from Chicago have controlled our state department and embassies since WWII.

Conservatives in that Embassy are probably limited to our Marine Guards for the Embassy.

Obama voters in that Embassy need to remember how our consulate in Lybia were left alone. If they want their families and them to be safe, it is time to abandon the sinking ship, our Embassy in Baghdad.

33
posted on 06/23/2014 9:35:28 AM PDT
by Grampa Dave
( Herr Obozo, the Sunni WonDoer, will not divert $'s from his war on Americans to help our Veterans!)

I think maybe the Iraqi army pulled out of those areas North of Baghdad because they are Sunni controlled towns. The mostly Shiite military didn't want to battle Sunni terrorist in Sunni dominated areas.

34
posted on 06/23/2014 9:46:19 AM PDT
by peeps36
(Save The Tortoise And Kill The People)

I initially feared a major chemical assault when I saw that al Muthannna had been captured by the rebels, and that the Ba’athists were back in the fight. After some thought, I think it less likely that they could mount the kind of large scale operations that they have in the past.

I still expect some use of chem warfare by the ISIS/Ba’athists, but probably more like terrorist attacks from vehicles, rather than major artillery bombardments. Maybe bring some into Syria, and try to smuggle some internationally for terror attacks.

The gear is old and likely poorly maintained, and their skills for safely handling and delivering (questionable at their height) are probably much less now. The Russians seem to be on the side of the Shia (Assad) so they are not likely to send covert specialists - it would be up to the old Ba’athist military men to have maintained the skills and equipment and to have secretly nurtured a chem war plan. Relatively low risk that they could pull it off, but very high cost if they could.

If the increased intelligence and surveillance is not tracking al Muthanna and the captured stocks closely, than they would be pretty lame - so a major movement and staging for a big attack would probably draw US airstrikes in a hurry.

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